PCB is the cornerstone of the electronics industry, and the circuit of all electronics requires PCB. PCB industry has been very mature, with limited growth rate or decline margin. In 2008 and 2009, the output value of PCB industry decreased due to the fierce price competition. In 2010, the electronics industry rebounded, but PCB industry only grew by 10.5%. In 2011, the growth rate of PCB industry is expected to be merely 5.1%.

The internal PCB of ordinary mobile phones employs the design of 1HDI+2 traditional boards +1HDI, with HDI as the outer layer and the traditional board as the inner layer.

New type of iPad is 1/3 thinner than old type,mainly because HDI develops from the original multi-layer board to Any-Layer, and Any-Layer has dense holes. Nevertheless, the hole diameter of Any-Layer must be done by laser drilling instead of machine drilling. In the future, iPhone 5 will be lighter and thinner like iPad 2.

In the world, there are four iPad 2 suppliers, including Tripod which is the exclusive supplier of HDI mainboard in Taiwan, TTM of the USA, IBIDEN and MEIKO of Japan. All alternative suppliers are from Taiwan, including Nan Ya PCB Corporation, Gold Circuit Electronics, Compeq Manufacturing Co., Ltd. and Unimicron.